A five-year-old
Pennsylvania boy with autism died on Tuesday August 22 during "chelation
therapy" with intravenous EDTA. Chelation, a treatment intended
to remove lead, mercury, and other substances from the body, is becoming
increasingly popular as an "alternative" treatment for autism.
EDTA, a synthetic amino acid. Chelation has been approved and has
demonstrated utility for removing lead after lead poisoning. It has
not been approved by the FDA for treating children with autism. To
date no controlled, peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated the effectiveness
of chelation for autism or other developmental disabilities. The boy,
who had been brought from England by his parents to receive the chelation,
was being treated by Dr. Roy E. Kerry of Portersville and Greenville,
Pennsylvania. Kerry is operator of the Advanced Integrative Medicine Center (AIMC), and is known
for using a wide variety of "alternative" treatments and
nonstandard diagnostic tools including chelation, "accupressure
for allergies," and "Computerized
Electrodermal Testing." (Post-Gazette 8-24;
Post-Gazette
8-25;Tribune-Review story;Kerry
website;
Yahoo News:Yahoo News 8-26) From the AIMC website:

Advanced Integrative Medicine Center
has been providing medical advice and treatment for over 30 years.
Along with providing chelation therapy The Center also provides
a full range of allergy therapy, nutritional counseling, advanced
techniques in hormone therapy, and massage therapy, to the latest
modalities in diagnosing and treating illness (AIMC).

Despite the lack
of empirical evidence showing that heavy metal poising causes autism,
some organizations, such as "Generation Rescue," contend
that autism is nothing more than mercury poisoning and can be entirely
cured by eliminating systemic mercury. WCNC News of Charlotte North
Caroline has quoted J.B. Handley, founder of Generation Rescue, as
saying "Autism is treatable. It's reversible. It's nothing more
than mercury poisoning" (WCNC,
registration req.). The Generation Rescue website also states:

Generation
Rescue believes that childhood neurological disorders such as autism,
Asperger's, ADHD/ADD, speech delay, sensory integration disorder,
and many other developmental delays are all misdiagnoses for mercury
poisoning.

When you
know cause, you can focus on cure.Thousands of parents are curing
their children by removing the mercury from their children's bodies.
We want you, the parent, to know the truth. (Generation
Rescue)

I know that
these children are not autistic. There is no such thing as autism.
It is toxicity....Yes, mercury is the cause and to remove mercury
is the answer...This little bottle that helps the kids get better
is the only thing that has been shown to conclusively get these
kids better. Based on if you want to call it anecdotal or whatever.
(WCNC
Online, registration req.)

Buttar's treatment
has not been subject to any empirical testing for safety or effectiveness
for treating autism and has not been shown to be effective as a legitimate
chelating agent. Rather than cast suspicion on a doctor that promotes
and sells an unproven and untested treatment, the Representative Dan
Burton (R-Indiana) and Diana Washington (D-California) have nominated
for the National Institutes of Health "Pioneer Award" (Press
Release; NIH Pioneer
Award)

Chelation is
among a growing number of pseudoscientific treatments for autism (Autism
Watch). According to Stephen Barrett, founder of the Quackwatch
website, "Basically, chelation
has nothing to offer....The treatment is worthless and has some potential
danger. Here is a case that demonstrates that." To
date, treatments based on behavior analysis are the only empirically
verified methods shown to be significantly effective for treating
the major behavior problems associated with autism (ASAT;Behavior News)